Arrival in Rwinkwavu

On the 15th of August we took a car through the Rwandan countryside from Kigali to Rwinkwavu, a dry region in the impoverished southeast of the nation.  The change from the city, which has developed strikingly in the past three years since I was last here, to the gorgeous but destitute country was dramatic.  

Once we arrived, we began with taking some stock footage of the region, footage that we hope will simultaneously reveal both the incredible beauty and the extreme poverty of Rwinkwavu while also exploring various aspects of Rwandan culture and the central theme of soccer.  We took most of this footage simply on the streets of the villages, capturing colorfully dressed people on their way to the fields, people driving rusty bikes laden with massive cartons of bananas or sticks or water, and the many small children gathering around us to wonder at these strange people wearing strange clothes and carrying strange tools.  That's one of the most shocking aspects of any trip to Rwanda: the multitudes of dusty, emaciated kids shouting 'mazungu!' (Kinyarwanda for white man) at us and following us wherever we go, practicing their limited English and French on us, and laughing at our strangeness.

Here's a photo of two kids, scared of us but still curious

and another one of a crowd of kids fascinated by me with a camera and tripod

The first days

Jules and I (Caleb) have been meaning to start this blog for some time, but we've been busy working on the documentary and didn't get around to it until earlier today.  The next few posts will summarize what we've been doing up till now, to keep you up to date.  This one is about the first days we spent in Rwanda.

We arrived in Kigali, Rwanda on the 14th of August.  Flying over Rwanda at night was incredible, since the country was completely dark. As I got off the plane at the Kigali International Airport, I smelled Africa in the air.  There's something about it, maybe the dust or the smoke from the small fires across the country, or even just the diesel fuel, that imparts an beautifully unforgettable scent.  It was Jules's first time in Africa, but I don't doubt that he'll come to remember the smell as I do.

In Kigali we worked mostly on pre-production, planning out different possible outlines for our film, which we had meant to do before going.  Unfortunately, Jules was on vacation in Greece and I was enjoying the sun on Nantucket, so we hadn't gotten around to it.  We had the chance to visit the Genocide Memorial Centre, which was very revealing of Rwanda's past and present, and at the same time was one of the most poignant places I've ever been.  We also prepared and tested some of the new equipment we had bought, such as our Glidecam 2000 Pro (an image stabilizer), which we spent ages balancing.  The other eventful aspect of our short stay in Kigali was that Jules overdosed hugely on his malarone pills (a drug to fight medicine) when he accidentally took the curative form of the drug, which is intended only for those who already have the disease.  His resulting illness lasted for days.

That's all for now; the next post will deal with our arrival in Rwinkwavu and the beginning of the production.

The Story

Soccer in Rwanda is a short documentary film project currently in production by Caleb Murray-Bozeman and Jules Fletcher Le Masson.  We wanted to make a film that would explore Rwandan society, and we found that soccer provided the most easily accessible window into this very different culture.  

According to our current plan (which is very much subject to change!), our documentary follows a young child who lives in Rwinkwavu, one of the poorest regions of the country, during a typical day.  In a life marked by extreme poverty, soccer becomes a way to escape daily hardship, and, more simply, a way to have fun.  Through interviews with other characters ranging from kids playing on a club team to their coach to the soccer commissioner for the entire country, our film explores other aspects of the role that soccer plays in Rwanda.  It looks at how soccer was used to help overcome ethnic tensions after the 1994 genocide, and at how it is used to help overcome gender inequality.  Ultimately, we hope that our film will reveal the hope that soccer represents in this country.

Our documentary blends this story line about soccer and Rwandan culture with the story of our own trip in Rwinkwavu.  It follows the ups and downs of the creation of this film, and it examines the experience of being a stranger in a completely different society.

We plan to update this blog regularly with news and stories about our project, so you can expect to hear from us soon!